NSUN was honoured to be asked to support the Housing Justice Project group as they spoke to the media and the public from the steps of the Legislature on May 7, 2024. They released their comprehensive report Homes for All: Evaluating the Right to Housing in Victoria, spoke about their personal journeys of homelessness and clearly laid out their 8 calls to action.
Calls to Action from the Housing Justice Project:
- There must be direct and meaningful involvement of people affected by homelessness as partners and in employment roles.
- Until there is adequate housing for all, end displacement of people living outdoors. Work with people in encampments to protect their human rights and provide basic services such as running water, electricity, bathrooms, sanitation, and garbage disposal. Stop Displacement, Stop the Sweeps.
- Eliminate long-term stays in shelters by moving people into permanent housing within 30 days.
- End evictions from transitional programs into homelessness. Move people directly from homelessness or transitional programs into permanent, adequate housing that costs no more than one-third of income, or the shelter rate with security of tenure.
- In Greater Victoria alone, we need 2,000 net new deeply subsidized and shelter-rate homes constructed annually for the next 10 years to prevent and end mass homelessness in our region.
- Provide everyone who is exiting homelessness with adequate housing as defined by The Housing Justice Project. Adequate housing aligns with human rights, and includes security of tenure which cannot be found in program agreements.
- Reconciliation includes ending homelessness for Indigenous people with Indigenous-led housing and culture as healing.
- We need rental supplements that are easy to access and are enough money to rent an apartment in the market.
NSUN members Heather (far left) and Susan (far right) help hold sign at the Legislature on May 7, 2024
Photo above from the CHEK news article on the event.
Neighbourhood Solidarity with Unhoused Neighbours 